Charity
Charity is a girl whom Layla encountered one night while patrolling, noted to be only about a year older than her and who wears the St. Thom Huell school uniform. She claimed to be a former student of STH who was the Slayer before Layla, who had died only to be resucitated by conventional modern medical means. She is noted to be extremely attractive, with dirty blonde hair and very pale skin. Biography Charity has since independently acted as a Slayer without overview from the Watchers' Council, whom she regards as stuck-up and obstructive. She was previously out-of-town and arrived only after James' death. Charity garnered quite a reputation among the supernatural residents of Little Rosewater, frequenting The Alley, a public house establishment frequented and staffed by demons, who cower in fear at her appearance; this is reciprocated by Charity acting particularly dismissive of them and treats them with disdain. Over their conversations during quiet times on patrol, she confessed to Layla that she once had friends as she had, but lost them and thus struck out alone. One night, Layla found her preparing to taunt vampires trying to crawl out of the frozen ground, having brought a megaphone along. After giving up on this due to Layla's unwillingness to do so, the two went to The Alley. She drunkenly tried to hit on Layla, but was ultimately unsuccessful. She also encountered some demon debt collectors, whom she ordered Layla to attack and helped Layla kill them. Later, when faced with the potential of facing Bur'nakk, Barnaby Crimp's Drox sire and a powerful Drox demon, Layla sought Charity out. Charity was receptive to the idea, but refused any intervention from the Watchers' Council, having heard of the arrival of Layla's new Watcher. Charity insisted that if she saw a Watcher, then she would kill them. Charity attempted to set out the tone of the debate, but Layla vehemently refused to yield to Charity's demands, leaving Charity alone outside The Alley. While trying to escape Bur'nakk trailing her, Imogen Parker, Layla's girlfriend, entered The Alley. After asking the bartender for information on his "resources", she asked him for Charity's whereabouts. The bartender immediately became nervous on the mention of her name, and directed Imogen to Charity, who was passed out underneath a table with clear signs of heavy drinking. Imogen managed to wake her up and convince her to provide a distraction for her. Imogen managed to negotiate down Charity's demands to a kiss in the future, leading Charity to be impressed by Imogen's gumption. Charity thus challenged Bur'nakk, who tried to hit her but was apparently unable to hurt the blonde due to enchantments on the premises preventing violence or magic. At a later point, however, Charity apparently fled the premises as she was not there when Layla tried to sneak in. She was observed by Imogen using The Child's mirror to be nervously walking away in a high-collared trenchcoat and hat. Revelations On the night of Friday 13th 1998, Charity attached a Valentine's card in the form of a crude note pinned to Layla and Imogen's window with the following message: "Roses are red, violets are blue; Layla Smith, I want to ''s''lay you.", with a winky face on the back. This message brought some initial confusion to Layla and her friends, who thought it was a death threat until Robert realised it. While this conclusion was uncertain, Robert, Imogen and Barnaby decided to monitor the girls' dorm with a camera while Layla went off to find Charity, who confirmed that the card was from her. Charity continued to flirt with Layla, who found it unsettling due to being in a relationship with Imogen; Charity insinuated that she would also be interested in a relationship with Imogen or a polyamorous relationship. While she did this, Layla used her vampire sense and managed to realise that below Charity's perfume was a cold, wet smell and her canine were suspiciously pointed. The game now up, Charity remarked on her surprise that "we" (referring to Slayers in general) could do that, then proceded to grapple Layla from behind and bit into her neck. In the ensuing fight Layla was no real match, and at times Charity even opened herself to attacks from Layla. Eventually Layla decided the better cf valour is discretion, and bravely ran away to Charity's teasing taunts. After this was explained to her alarmed friends, they embarked on research, with Layla checking the Watcher's Book of Slayers, Robert the School Records and Imogen and Barnaby doing general research. Layla realised that a Slayer in the late 80s apparently had no activity for the last two years of her career. At the same time, Robert found the records of one Catherine Winter, who was expelled due to "severe neck trauma due to puncture wounds", but was recorded as having died by the Greater Rosewater Royal Infirmary before this date. The student had a very close resemblance to Charity, albeit more demure and well-kept. She was named Katherine Winters, and had died at the end of her time at St. Thom Huell, just before she should have finished her last year of school. She had been accepted into Oxford and planned to study medicine, dying in 1988. These facts ascertained, the team concluded that due to the gap in the Watcher's book, there had been a cover-up where Katherine had become Slayer in 1986, had somehow been turned into a vampire in 1988. She then woke up sometime after her body was discovered, returned to school and was then kicked out of school for assaulting a student. When they spoke to Mr. Davidson, Layla's Watcher, he was greatly troubled at these revelations but did not rule out the possibility of a cover-up, bringing up the survival-of-the-fittest attitude of the Watchers' Council towards new Slayers. Around February 1998, Charity apparently killed a "top level" kelpie, Katherine/Kurt, walking into The Alley in search of "big ass butt to kick". Bartholomew, the bartender, suspected that this was out of a need to work out some feelings. This was apparently before her status as a vampire was revealed to Layla. This was found out by the team when they investigated the death of a handyman at the school to a kelpie. A previous victim, Bella Scythe, had turned into a ghost and mentioned that she was present at the incident where a vampired Mr. Miller killed four students with a pipe, along with a girl whom Imogen and Layla realised might have been Charity. When the group attempted to contact him through a ouija board, he appeared to confirm this. Later, Charity was suspected as being the cause of Mr. Davidson's attack on his sons. This was confirmed after she was suspected to have the vampire power of hypnosis. Later, she ambushed the group. Barnaby, but in reality his alter Bak'tarbe, managed to steal her phone while making out with her. When Layla offered to re-insoul her, she and her minions attacked. However, Robert used a teleporter to whisk her away to an unknown location. Afterwards, Charity could not be found for a while. Due to concurrent events, it was realised that Charity had also been possessed by the Cardinal Sin, Lust. She was identified as the vampire who turned Mr. Miller and who also killed Janet's parents. Her attempts to attack the Davidsons' household were thwarted by Ra when the rest of the team left for Tunisia. After they returned, a botched memory spell by Barnaby resulted in Charity, along with Layla, Robert, Barnaby, Janet, Violet and Mr. Davidson losing their memories. She developed an odd friendship with Layla, whom she had intended to taunt and was visiting when the spell was cast. When the memory crystal broke, Layla threw up on Charity's exposed chest. Charity then ran away for a while. She resurfaced with the bombing of the Watchers' Council HQ in Oxford. This prompted the team to use their last resort. As Charity returned to Little Rosewater, she was re-insouled by Imogen and Janet. The spell was a success and the soul of Katherine Winters came to the fore. Katherine revealed that she had been turned by Thom Huell, the namesake and owner of the school. Personality and Traits Charity has appeared to exhibit the superhuman abilities typical of a Slayer, despite not being the prime Slayer, and is highly competent in fighting the dark forces. Unlike Layla, however, Charity treats the task with disdain, taking any opportunity to taunt them. In particular, when the ground is frozen over, Charity has a propensity to taunt vampires attempting to crawl out of their graves in the cemetery with a megaphone. In general, she is a highly unrestrained and irreverent young woman. She may be an alcoholic. She dresses similarly to Layla, and favours a short skirt and combat boots. When not in her "Slayer" outfit she has been seen wearing clothing unsuitable for December inside, but wearing a trenchcoat and hat when outside in the sunlight. She was long suspected to be and has been confirmed to be a vampire despite being a Slayer, which may be the cause of her distrust of Watchers. This was confirmed via the séance to contact Bella Scythe and the hypnosis of George Davidson, and ultimately confirmed by her attack on the group with her minions. It was later revealed that while part of Charity's aggressive nature was from the vampirism, she was also possessed by the Cardinal Sin Lust at some point, resulting in an overtly-sexual nature. Notes Charity is a reference to Faith, a similar character in the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. Faith, Hope and Charity were a group of Christian martyrs who became sainted and as such the three virtues/names often associated with each other. For instance, the three Gloster Gladiators that defended Malta during the early state of WWII were named Faith, Hope and Charity. Category:Layla the Vampire Slayer Category:Non Player Characters